10/31/2011

Over the past year, our blog has expanded its reader base considerably. A lot of that is due in no small part to Slashfilm. I'm assuming you guys are subscribed or something, because I have no idea how you jump on our stuff so quickly. The fact that a huge blog like slashfilm would pay attention to our little blog is a humbling experience. It's also amazing to see the traffic boost. Our hits can go up a thousandfold from just one mention. Just wanted to let you guys know we appreciate it.

Here's a partial list of posts that SlashFilm has mentioned and promoted.

***This contest is now closed ***
We've been nominated by our buddy Alex J. Cavanaugh for the Movie411 awards and to celebrate we're giving away three $5 Amazon gift cards!

Movie 411 has nominated us for Best Sci-Fi Blog and Best Gossip Blog for 2011. We're very excited!
So, we're giving away a bunch of Amazon gift cards to our Google followers. If you don't know what a Google Follower is you can get details here.

Here are the details:

The Prize

One of three $5 Amazon gift cards.

How to Win
Become a Google follower of our blog. It's that simple. If you're already a follower then you're already entered in this month's contest! If you do follow us let us know in the comments so we can follow your blog.

There are two ways to get extra entries in the contest. One, link back to this contest from your blog and you get another entry in the contest! Two, nominate us for one of the awards. Make sure you let us know in the comments when you've done this so we can give you credit.

The winners will be chosen from the list of entries randomly on November 15th and announced on that day in a blog post.

Rules and Restrictions

The contest runs from October 31st to November 14th 12:00 AM.

You must have an Amazon and Google account to participate.

A maximum of three entries per person.

The Movie 411 awards are a lot of fun and whether we win or lose it's great to be nomiated along with all the other awesome blog.
P.S. Make sure you nominate Alex for the awards! He deserves it!

Find out more about the contest by clicking the images below.

What are you waiting for? Become a follower by using the sidebar or clicking here today!

10/28/2011

The Statue of Liberty has had a prominent place in movie history and here are the most moving moments of the Statue in science-fiction films.

Today is the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Back on October 28, 1886 the old girl was introduced to the world by President Grover Cleveland. Since then, the statue has been a symbol and beacon of hope for millions. It's also been trashed by every disaster known to man.

Here are the top eight cameos of the statue in science-fiction cinema as she's been frozen, decapitated, blown up and neuralyzed.

8. Superman IV (1987)

When the clone of Superman known as "Nuclear Man" started destroying the world in Superman IV:The Quest for Peace he took out the Great Wall of China and the Eiffel tower, but he really crossed the line when he picked up the Statue of Liberty and started flying away with it. The horrible special effects of him flying through the city and change in scale from shot to shot almost makes us forget we're supposed to be watching a Superman film. When the fight is over Superman puts her back on her pedestal.

We all cheered. Then, we remembered we were watching Superman IV. We were sad again.

7. Spaceballs (1987)
In Mel Brook's rather lame parodies of space films...Star Wars really...the evil leader of Planet Spaceball sets out to steal the air from Druidia using the massive "Spaceball One." In the final scene the ship transforms into a giant cleaning lady called "Mega-Maid" and sucks the air with a vacuum. When the ship is destroyed the hand and head land on the shore and parodies the final scene from Planet of the Apes.

If there are ten funny scenes in Spaceballs, this is number eight.

6. Men in Black II (2002)
In the movie Men in Black II the two heroes Jay and Kay realize that the entire city has seen evidence of an alien spaceship. This goes against their mission to hide evidence of aliens from Earth. What do they do now?

Turns out the statue's torch is really a giant neuralyzir. They "flashy thingy" the city and wipe out the memory of thousands of citizens. Nice to think that the statue serves a dual purpose, but it does make you wonder about the ones looking in the other direction.

5. Cloverfield (2008)

Cloverfield was a disaster film shrouded in secrecy with only hints what it was going to be about. In the most striking scene the monster decapitates the statue and the head goes flying into the street.

When it came to rest facing the camera we all gave a collective gasp of "Oh man. This is bad."

4. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
In the only disaster movie based on global warming the Eastern seaboard is flooded and subjected to a sudden cold front.

In a symbol of the end of the world, the 300 foot statue is dwarfed by the wave of a huge mega-tsunami. When the hero goes to find his son he passes the frozen remains of the statue poking out from the snow.

It seemed hopeless, and seeing her like that made us all wonder if the world would ever be the same again.

3. Deep Impact (1998)
In another disaster film, the world is destroyed by a 7-mile wide comet. The impact creates a massive tidal wave that destroys the Eastern coastline.

As the camera goes under the water we see the head of the Statue of Liberty floating along the streets of New York. Truly a sad testament to the end of humanity as we know it.

2. X-Men (2000)
The statue became a major plot point when it turns out Magneto's plan to turn the international group of delegates into mutants involved trapping Rogue to the torch. When the X-Men go to save her a series of fantastic battle erupt inside the old girl.

There was a spectacular fight scene between Wolverine and Mystique. On the other hand, there was that awful joke Storm told about how you kill a toad. As we all groaned she fried Toad with lightning. The final fight between Sabretooth and Wolverine on the head goes down as one of the greatest fights in movie history.

This is the most iconic scene in movie history. The big twist ending that Heston Taylor hadn't been on an alien planet after all. Heston sets off with his girlfriend to explore the world. Riding on horseback to the beach he comes to the horrifying truth on the beach as we see a crown in the foreground.

Faced with the undeniable truth that he was on an Earth destroyed by nuclear war he collapsed to the ground a broken man. Heston gave the immortal line "I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was...We finally really did it. You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, d**n you! G** d****d you all to h**l!"

The camera pans back and Lady Liberty had never looked sadder. Nothing left but the top half buried in the sand. Broken and decayed. Truly a sad moment.

The most moving Statue of Liberty moment in all of science-fiction films.

Have a NetFlix account and some time on your hands? Feel like watching some sci-fi TV shows, but don't know which one? This handy infographic from SF Signal is here to rescue you. Just follow the handy flowchart and you'll be melting your brain with some science fiction and fantasy goodness in no time. After the jump...

10/26/2011

So you've just got yourself a big-screen HDTV with a THX-certified surround-sound stereo system, and you want to show it off. Or you're gonna be hanging out with some fellow geeks, and you want to pop in a great movie without having to run to Blockbuster. In my world, everyone who calls themselves a geek would have these eight movies in their collection. These are not just great sci-fi movies, but movies that stand the test of time, have sounds and visuals that will test any home theater system, and reward repeat viewing.

1. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back - Luke Skywalker and his allies face the fury of the Empire, even as Luke trains as a Jedi to face Darth Vader. Every card-carrying geek would do well to own the entire original Star Wars trilogy, but if you have to own just one, it should be Empire Strikes Back. Also known as the best one, Empire features memorable dialogue, heart-pounding action, and genuine surprises and twists.2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The crew of the Enterprise faces the return of an old enemy, the genetic superman Khan, who plots revenge against Kirk for his imprisonment on a desolate planet. Of course, any scifi will need Star Trek on their shelf. The best Trek movie in the series is Khan, featuring epic combat and one of the greatest villains in movie history.3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - An ordinary man is drawn into a massive government conspiracy to cover up Earth's first contact with extraterrestrials. With this movie, Steven Spielberg single-handedly changed the way we saw aliens. This movie shows a first alien contact with heart-pounding realism and stunning special effects.4. 2001 - A Space Odyssey - A mission to explore a mysterious monolith in space leads the crew into conflict with the spaceship's malevolent computer. This is the most realistic portrayal of space flight ever conceived on film. 2001 tells an epic story about the origin of our species and the future of Mankind, and has visuals that always take my breath away.5. Blade Runner - In a dark future, a detective is forced to grapple with his own morality and identity in pursuit of fugitive androids. This movie set a new standard for a dystopian vision of the future, and has been copied in all forms of media. The story and special effects remain haunting, after all these years.6. Avatar - A soldier sent to live among aliens in a remote-controlled body finds himself going native, and joining their battle against his own kind. Though the story is kind of familiar, the movie remains an incredible achievement. Even without the 3-D, the movie has eye-popping visuals and CGI that will set the standard for years to come.7. Forbidden Planet - When a starship investigates the mysterious silence of a colony, they discover a mad scientist whose tinkering with alien technology unleashes a fearsome monster. This movie re-defined science-fiction at a time when it was considered just for kids. The story still remains deeply philosophical, even as it employs impressive special effects to tell the tale.8. Back to the Future - When a teenager goes back in time, he has to make sure his parents fall in love to make sure he's born in the present. The definitive time travel movie. Always funny and the special effects still hold up.

Do you agree with this list? What are some other movies every geek should own?

10/25/2011

It's good to have seemingly unlimited money, resources, and imagination. The proof is LucasFilm's promotion of the Blu-Ray version of Star Wars. Among the more outlandish stunts has been painting lightsabers onto the handrails of Japanese trains. I'll bet they thought about doing this in New York trains, but the handrails would've been gone by morning.

There are a lot of unfounded fears about vaccines these days, but here are five really dangerous vaccines that have appeared in movies and television you may want to avoid.

According to a report in Arizona Republic thousands of Arizona schoolchildren skipped their recommended vaccines during the 2010-11 school year. If more than ten percent of the population is unvaccinated we're all in big trouble.

These people are cranks and wackos. But, it wouldn't have been a bad idea to have some of these nutballs around to stop the following vaccinations.

4. Star Trek (2009)

In the movie Star Trek 2009 McCoy gets Kirk onto the Enterprise by injecting him with a vaccine for "Melvarian Mud Fleas." Whatever those are.

It's supposed to create temporary flu-like symptoms, but instead makes him loopy and swells up his hands to Popeye-like cartoony size. It also caused "Slap-Stick Comedy Syndrome" which causes nausea and groaning in large segments of the audience.

3. I Am Legend (2007)

A vaccine for cancer is discovered in the film I Am Legend (2007) called KV that inadvertently kills 90% of the world's population. That's five point 4 billion people. Of the survivors five hundred and eighty-eight million turned into vampire-like carnivorous mutants. They killed and ate most of the rest.

So, it might have been a good idea to skip that one.

2. V (2009)

In the television show V the aliens looked friendly enough. They created healing centers and started curing cancer. They also started giving out vitamin supplements and flu vaccines. Turns out the vaccines were laced with a compound known as R-6 which acted as a tracking device.

This allowed animal-like "Tracker" aliens to hunt people down and kill them. Good thing the show got cancelled before the government started thinking about it too.

1. X-Files

The ultimate conspiracy theorist show X-Files took a new approach on the Smallpox vaccine. First, in the episode "Anasazi", alien-human hybrid bodies that Mulder found had smallpox vaccination scars. Weird.

Then, the two heroes find a comprehensive DNA database for every man, woman, and child born since the 1950s, secretly collected during smallpox inoculations.

Pretty scary stuff, but then it turns out Smallpox is deadly to aliens. So, they started using the vaccine to fight the aliens. In a way, vaccines turned out to be a good thing.

Ironically enough, Amanda Peet, star of the film X-Files: I Want to Believe with all it's conspiracy mumbo-jumbo, said parents who don't vaccinate their children are "parasites."

The reality is that vaccinations for children are scientifically proven to be safe and anything else is science-fiction. Vaccines for things like Measles and Smallpox are vital. So, until we come up with vaccines that accidentally turn us into vampires, vaccinate your kids.

Captain America is the big release this week and you can get it in three flavors, DVD, Blu-Ray and a 3-D version for the five of you that have 3-D compatible home entertainment systems. There's also a Jurassic Park trilogy available on Blu-Ray. While the first is a classic it's debatable if the other two are worth watching. Cool bonus features though.

Now, we're not going to get all hypocritical and self-righteous. I think everyone snickers a little at the overweight guy in the Superman outfit. We even posted an article making fun of overweight cosplayers. I think the real problem is geeks feel safe at a Comic-Con, where it's about the imagination and effort that goes into the costume, not so much what you look like. It doesn't help that you published this article, Men's Fitness. People are getting flashbacks to the muscular jock in high school, and the cosplayers are an easy stand-in for the nerds in high school.

But we're not going to get mad. We'll get even. You see, we can make fun of jocks, too. For example...

Can't tell if working out or smuggling bowling balls...

Must...make...head...pop off!

I think it's time he started working on his lower half...

He worked out so hard that his brains are in his arms

Have a nice day,

The Geek Twins

Can you think of better captions for these photos? Do you agree that Men's Fitness hit a low blow with their article? Or should all of us lighten up?

Before the new trilogy, Obi-Wan Kenobi was an interesting cypher when we met him in the first Star Wars. He was an old guy living on Tattooine, and when he met Luke, taught him the ways of the Force. Then the prequels came along and mucked everything up. Here's five reasons why Obi-Wan's exile opens up a whole can of worms.

Could an hour-long television show based on the ultimate comic book anti-hero work? There's reason for hope.

So, Russ Fischer at Slashfilm is reporting that "The Punisher" comic book is being adapted into a television series as a "procedural cop drama." Before you have visions of CSI with machine guns listen to the synopsis: "Frank Castle, a rising star detective with the New York Police Department who moonlights as the vigilante Punisher, seeking justice for those the system has failed."

For those not familiar with the character in the comics he's the ultimate vigilante. His family was killed by mobsters and he set out to kill every criminal within fifty yeards of him. He does not arrest. He kills. He does not investigate. He kills. He has an arsenal of weapons that would have made Saddam Hussein blush and he doesn't use it for show. He kills.

Now, this is not a televison show. It's just a pilot. In fact, it's what's called a "Put Pilot." It basically means even if the pilot sucks rocks the network has to put it on the air or they have to pay "substantial penalties."

Before we get all riled up we should keep in mind that the Wonder Woman pilot never made it to the air. The same thing could happen with this project. But, assuming that we do get to see it there are some good things going for it.

Executive producer Edward Allen Bernero has a history of good procedural cop dramas. "Third Watch" for NBC with John Wells and CBS' "Criminal Minds." Both shows are going strong, so if he's able to give the show a sense of realism it may take off with non-comic book fans.

Bernero spent ten years as a night shift beat cop with the Chicago Police Department. If there's anyone who's spent time with the criminal dregs of the city, it's him. Night shift is when the streets get really dirty. No doubt a few times he thought about taking matters into his own hands with some low-life child abuser. Maybe for a second.

The Punisher's already had three failed movie attempts. The first in the 90s with Dolph Lundgren. In 2004 with Thomas Jane and again in 2008 with Ray Stevenson in the title role. All three stunk up the box office. But, that doesn't mean it's doomed to fail. There are a few shows that did OK in the theaters, but worked on television. Think of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Fox made Human Target into a television show and completely abandoned the original rip-roaring idea of a superhero who literally tranforms himself into his client to smoke out the killer in favor of a ho-hum bodyguard drama. It made it to a second season but barely. This could work against it, or it could work in it's favor. Maybe they learned their lesson from the show.

Hire someone with some weight and experience to play Frank — I hear former "SVU" star Chris Meloni is available these days, or maybe Tom Jane can even take another crack if his "Hung" schedule allows — get Garth Ennis on the team as a writer and consultant, and aim for a tone that's in line with early days "24." That's a network "Punisher" show I'd watch.

Will it be faithful to the comic book? I doubt it, but since I'm not a huge "Punisher" fan it doesn't make much difference to me.

Will it be a good show? It just might.

So, what do you think? Could a Punisher television show work?[Image source: Scene-Stealers]

10/21/2011

With the death of dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi we now present the greatest deaths of the worst dictators of geekdom.

Gaddafi was a bad guy, but his death was not very dramatic. He just got shot. On the other hand there have been some truly spectacular deaths in the history of science-fiction.

Here are five horrible dictators that got their end by being thrown, shocked, beat up and eaten.

Emperor Palpatine

In Star Wars, Emperor Palpatine served as ruler of the Galactic Empire for decades. Under his reign tyranny and murder became common place. He ruled with an iron fist and took delight in destroying planets. He was the Donald Trump of space. His death actually came at the hand of his student and right-hand man Darth Vader. He was picked up and thrown down a shaft into the core of the Death Star.

The energy his body gave off at death made for a great light show. The entire galaxy celebrated his death and it ended the Empire once and for all.

General Zod

In the film Superman, the mad general from the planet Krypton was so evil that his home planet banished him and his two top soldiers to another dimension called the Phantom Zone. As further proof that incarceration does not lead to rehabilitation as soon as he was freed he set out to conquer the planet "Houston" known as Earth.

Using his super-human powers he took over that planet and demanded that everyone kneel to him. It was his arrogance that led to his undoing as he foolishly allowed his greatest enemy Superman to strip him of his powers and throw him down a valley into an icy tomb.

Ming the Merciless

In the movie Flash Gordon (1980) the ruler of the planet Mongo "Ming the Merciless" crushed, oppressed, and enslaved not just his own planet, but many others. His decision to conquer the billions on the planet Earth was based on boredom. Using his power ring, he starts a slew of natural disasters that kill thousands and threaten to destroy the planet.

His death comes from his own power ring that makes him disappear. This one may be a cheat since the ending scene shows he might still be alive. Not a bad way to go though.

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen

In the 1984 film based on the novel Dune Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is ruler of the industrial world of Giedi Prime. So fat and gross he can't even walk he floats around on a hoverchair cackling and fondling his servants. He's so sadistic that he has all his minions fitted with a plug to their heart so he can kill them just by pulling it out.

His plans to take over are thwarted by a freaky little girl who disabled his chair and he floated through a wall and was eaten by a sandworm.

General M.Bison

In the movie Street Fighter a cruel dictator of the fictional South East Asian nation of Shadaloo, General M. Bison valued hand-to-hand combat but was more than willing to give orders to kill. He captured humanitarian workers and held them for billions in ransom. To him life was a video game.

He initiated scientific experimentation on captured soldiers to create the perfect human weapon. He ended up making a big green guy with bad hair. His goal was to wipe away every ethnic group and creed to serve him. Truly a big boss.

While fighting Colonel William F. Guile, the "Allied Nations" top soldier kicked him into a bank of computers fatally electrocuting him. But, wait! His suit revived him once giving him an extra life. The megalomaniac starts flying around the room before being kicked into another bank of computers and being electrocuted again. This time he ran out of quarters and died. This was the greatest death of all. His death was so nice, he got it twice.

Which is the greatest of all dictator deaths? If we missed one, let us know in the comments.